December 22, 2005

It’s safe to say that VOTOMs is my bread and butter. My meat and potatos. This is not to say that I accept every toy or model uncritically. I was dissapointed by the Microman Chirico and the Kaiyodo K-T Figure Series isn’t that great, but all-in-all VOTOMs is my favorite thing. Especially the Blue Knight side story.

Enter CM’s Corporation Mecha Action Series Blue Knight Berserga, or Blue Knight for short. For those who don’t know, Blue Knight is an “Armored Trooper” present in the first 2 novels, and is piloted by the main character, Kain McDougal. The upgraded version from the second novel, Blue Knight Super Execution, is scheduled for release next year. In the 3rd novel, the main character receives the Calamitydog Zerverus VR-Maxima which is also coming out next year. There is currently no information regarding Testa Rossa, Kain McDougal’s AT from the 4th novel.

Blue Knight costs 3800yen and is about 5 inches tall. It is roughly 1/35 scale. It comes with closed fists, and an alernate hand permanently holding the mecha’s rifle known as a Bail Gun. It is fully poseable in all the places you would expect utilizing a large compliment of ABS joints and is very reminiscent of MSIA Gundam toys, due to the style of joints, and the various materials the toy is made of(hopefully my photo gallery does the toy justice). It is capable of Down Form by removing the armor on the front of the legs. Presumably, it would only utilize Down Form during a repair period, or any circumstance outside of combat when it is not necessary to have the front leg armor.

The various joints are very stable and sturdy. The elbows have detents to aid in holding up the rifle and Pile Banker(the shield on the right arm). All the joints involved in Down Form are ABS, and are therefore very robust. The cockpit hatch is held in place by small styrene rods and can be completely removed very easily. The cockpit itself has minimal detail inside but is passable. Without a pilot it’s sort of missing something, but it’s not that big a deal.

All the detail from the line art is present, including Roller Dash wheels on the bottom of the feet. The spike inside of the Pile Banker can even extend as if to impale an opponent!

This toy is excellent and highly recommended. It is very similar to the Kaiyodo toys from the late 90’s but does everything right that the Kaiyodo toys did wrong, including excellent manufacturing quality, fantastic sculpting, high accuracy to the line art, ingenious engineering, and superb, careful paint application. I hope there are many more to come, and will definitely buy any more that CM’s Corporation makes!

December 15, 2005

Your nominations have been tallied and the voting period has begun. Voting will run from December 15th – 31st. This year we are providing an exit poll of sorts. You have the opportunity to wax poetic regarding just why your choice is particularly worthy of the coveted TOTY crown. English, correct grammar and complete sentences would be appreciated. Choice excerpts (ie; coherent ones) will be included, with credit, as part of the TOTY wrap-up. Remember, the polls close on the 31st; you have plenty of time to gather your thoughts before you hammer that vote button.